Sometimes April Fool's Day just brings good ol' fashioned funny news, and the folks from Sketchfest NYC have done just that, unveiling the first featured shows taking place from June 11-13, 2009. Kids in the Hall's Kevin McDonald will do double duty, performing his one-man show, "Kevin McDonald's Hammy & The Kids," as well as sitting down for a chat with Carl Arnheiter in "Inside Joke: An Evening of Lies." Also announced today: The cast and crew of MTV's The College Humor Show will give you a behind-the-scenes look at how it all happened, as well as whether it will ever happen again. The Rejection Show and Olde English's Very Fresh, The Story Pirates present Found Magazine, and a kids show, Striking Viking Story Pirates, also are on the bill. Look for more announcements soon.
MTV continues to dip its toes back into the waters of actual professional comedy (as opposed to the "reality" programming most viewers watch for laughs) this Sunday with the premiere of The CollegeHumor Show (9:30 p.m. Eastern). It has an initial six-episode order. What should we expect? I talked to Sam Reich, who runs CHTV and directs the show, to find out.
I take it the show came about through CollegeHumor's "Hardly Working"
series of original videos. When did you guys start producing "Hardly
Working" segments, anyhow, how did that come about, and when did you
realize that there might be something there that could be translated
and expanded into a full 22-minute TV show? Hardly Workings began when we moved into our new office about a
year and a half ago. The first one was called "Trust Fall." It
consistent of Amir going up to Jake, saying "Do you trust me?", falling
backwards, and hitting the floor. That's it. Obviously there's a big
difference between a ten-second video and a twenty-minute TV show.
While the TV show is like a Hardly Working, it's not a Hardly Working:
it's slightly more down-to-earth and character driven.
How and why did you end up pitching MTV on it? Was the network's
previous relationship with the Human Giant guys an influence at all in
that decision? How do you think CollegeHumor's "reality" will fit in
with the rest of MTV's stable of "reality" programming? MTV actually came to us with the skeleton of the
idea. Originally the idea was to recycle the material we do on the
site and create little bumpers in order to turn it into a TV show. In
other words, 90% old material, 10% new material. Now it's 90% new
material, 10% old material, and a much better show. Human Giant
definitely paved the way for comedy on MTV, but so did The State and
Beavis and Butthead. In a way, comedy shows on MTV get more exposure
because they stand out against the network's other content.
The kids over at CollegeHumor have shot a new promotional advertisement for their upcoming weekly MTV half-hour television program, which debuts Feb. 8. Short, but sweet.
Related: CollegeHumor appears live tonight with Streeter and Jeff hosting stand-up guests Kumail Nanjiani, Roger Hailes, Amy Schumer and Justin Kredible at the UCB Theatre in NYC.
After the jump, a new funny sketch from Elephant Larry that shows how much a little money, technological know-how and production values can really enhance your sketch, plus the CH "Mad Libs" take on Mad Men.
CollegeHumor's new show debuts on MTV next month (9:30 p.m., Feb 8), and this extended trailer leads you, me and anyone else to believe that this will be an actual honest-to-goodness good reason to watch MTV this year (since we may not have any Human Giant to look forward to (I'd insert a frowny emoticon if there weren't already so many parenthetical brackets here)). And Nick Kroll is in it! So, double hoorays all around. Enjoy:
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